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( Photo credit from left to right: Pete Souza, gatesnotes.com, Wikipedia Commons) "Polymaths have existed forever — indeed they are often the ones who’ve advanced Western civilization more than any others —" says author, Michael Simmons, link below. (Not just Western but all world civilisations.)   Polymaths have often been used synonymously with "geniuses", sort of meaning that they're born, not made. Funny that, considering how almost every child I've ever met is a genius, a polymath; so unbelievably curious, so voracious for knowledge. (Parents, not so much.)   (I think, all geniuses are polymaths, and not all polymaths are...

Back from La La Land

Travelling to the US has always been nerve-wracking for me (unless it’s done illegally, I’m told). Are they going to profile me for the way I look, for my colour, for my passport; will I be detained for hours for interrogation; will I miss my connection; will I be strip searched, should I wear my good underwear, will they make me take it off ... But this time, with a new administration in place, my fears hit fever pitch. Will they let me board the plane; will they cancel my visa mid-flight, does my name sound suspicious, will they rampas my laptop, will they turn me back, will I get picked-on in the streets ...

I read two interesting article in wired.com recently (it is a magazine for nerds, so if you don't know about it, that’s fine); one titled The Man Who's Trying to Kill Dark Matterand the other calledHere's What Sci-Fi Can Teach Us About Fascism. The first is a story about a Dutch theoretical physicist, Erik Verlinde, arguing that dark matter does not exist. (Actually, he posted a 51-page paper about it online.)

Lab tests on a consignment of rice seized by Nigerian customs officials show that the product is "contaminated" but not with plastic, the National Agency For Food and Drugs (Nafdac) says.

Drat. What a waste of a good story? Trump would have loved this one.

Just when I was starting to visualise groups of evil oriental scientists (presumably Chinese (yes, we can blame anything on them these days) in starched white coats, in bright space-age labs focussed on inventing plastic rice (as they did with eggs some years ago) ...

Yippee! I’m a poet, and I know it; hope I don’t blow it. (I Shall Be Free No. 10, Bob Dylan, 1964)